How to Improve Your Financial Budgeting Process

In an era where the modern CFO is steadily emerging as a strategic force—armed with real-time data and game changing insights—it’s clear that old-school, static budgeting procedures just don’t make the cut. An active budgeting process, on the other hand, is collaborative, comprehensive, and continuous—and can increase buy-in and accountability throughout the organization.

1. It’s just too inefficient. This is a process that takes too long, depletes too many resources, and results in far too many wasted hours (and tears).

2. It’s obsolete. With their annual nature and strict inflexibility, budgets are often outdated shortly after they are created. Despite the lack of real-time data in a traditional budget, financial goals are set through this model and departments are forced to try and hit outdated numbers.

3. It doesn’t motivate the right behavior. Traditional budgeting fosters a culture of bureaucracy over collaborative financial teams. Managers often pad their budgets for fear of not receiving enough money, creating a cross-functional competition for expanded budgets.

4. It’s out of sync with the overall strategic plan. Budgeting always pushes financial performance over strategy. Department managers are under pressure to meet budget numbers and stay within an often unreasonable and ill-advised set of parameters that were set without the ability to adjust.

The annual budgeting process was designed nearly a century ago and created to serve three main purposes: coordinate the organization’s financial activities, communicate financial expectations, and motivate managers to act in the company’s best interest. But just like society has evolved from the horse and buggy to electric cars and Teslas, old processes need to progress as well.

Want to learn how a best-practice, active planning process can help you drive business success? An active planning process is collaborative, comprehensive, and continuous—one that results in a better business plan. Better budgeting and forecasting. You’ll get greater visibility into business performance, build confidence in the numbers, make data-driven decisions, and increase buy-in and accountability throughout the organization. Learn more here.